MINEX Forum

Tag: Critical metals

  • European Lithium and Sizzle conclude business merger

    European Lithium and Sizzle conclude business merger

    European Lithium has finalized a strategic partnership with Sizzle Acquisition, resulting in the establishment of Critical Metals.

    This collaboration positions the Wolfsberg Lithium Project as the inaugural flagship asset of Critical Metals, with the company’s immediate focus on advancing the mine’s construction and commissioning.

    The successful conclusion of the transaction and subsequent listing of Critical Metals on the Nasdaq represent significant milestones in bolstering the development of this pivotal lithium asset, essential for Europe’s transition to green energy.

    As part of the agreement, European Lithium has received 67,788,383 ordinary shares in Critical Metals, securing the company’s status as the largest shareholder with an 83.03% stake in the issued capital.

    The estimated value of European Lithium’s investment in Critical Metals currently stands at $839 million (A$1.3 billion), based on the closing share price of $12.38 per share as of February 29, 2024.

  • Russia: Europe imports €13 billion of ‘critical’ metals in sanctions blindspot

    Russia: Europe imports €13 billion of ‘critical’ metals in sanctions blindspot

    Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the 27 EU countries have adopted 11 sanction packages, targeting raw materials including oil, coal, steel and timber. But minerals that the EU considers as “critical” raw materials – 34 in total – still flow freely from Russia to Europe in vast quantities, providing crucial funds to state enterprises and oligarch-owned businesses.
    While some of its western allies have targeted Russia’s mining sector – the UK recently banned Russian copper, aluminium and nickel – the EU has continued its imports. Airbus and other European companies are still buying titanium, nickel, and other commodities from firms close to the Kremlin more than a year after the invasion, Investigate Europe can reveal.

    Between March 2022 and July this year, Europe imported €13.7 billion worth of critical raw materials from Russia, data from Eurostat and the EU’s Joint Research Centre shows. More than €3.7 billion arrived between January and July 2023, including €1.2 billion of nickel. The European Policy Centre estimates that up to 90 per cent of some types of nickel used in Europe comes from Russian suppliers.

    “Why are critical raw materials not banned? Because they are critical, right. Let’s be honest,” the EU’s special envoy for sanctions, David O’Sullivan, pithily said at a September conference.

    The Union is desperate for critical raw materials to achieve its aim of climate neutrality by 2050. These commodities are crucial for electronics, solar panels and electric cars, but also for traditional industries like aerospace and defence. Yet they are all too often in scarce supply, unevenly available across the globe, and in high demand.

    “The war in Ukraine has clearly shown the willingness of Russia to weaponise the supply of key resources. As Europeans, we cannot tolerate that,” says Henrike Hahn, a German Green MEP working on the new Critical Raw Materials Act.

    Aluminium giant Rusal also uses tax havens to funnel minerals to Europe, where it owns the EU’s largest alumina refinery in Ireland and a smelter in Sweden. Its Jersey and Swiss-based trading houses brought at least $2.6 billion of aluminium into the bloc in the 16 months following the invasion of Ukraine. In August 2023, Rusal said Europe still accounted for a third of its revenues. Rusal’s main shareholder is oligarch Oleg Deripaska, sanctioned by the EU and its western partners.

    Anti-corruption NGO Transparency International says it does not make sense that the sector has avoided sanctions given the known links. “They are part of the system and fueling Putin’s war,” says senior policy officer Roland Papp. “So it’s perfectly logical to ban those critical raw materials from Russia, as we did for other sectors and goods.”

    Since the start of the war, other European buyers of Russian metals have included Germany’s GGP Metal Powder ($66 million of copper), French arms-maker Safran ($25 million of titanium) and Greece’s Elval Halcor ($13 million of aluminium). Dutch logistics firm C. Steinweg also handled at least $100 million of various critical metals on behalf of its customers.

    Safran confirmed they are still buying titanium from Vsmpo-Avismo but are working to reduce their Russia purchases. GGP Metal Powder said “there is no real alternative to our supplier from Russia”. C. Steinweg said they follow all rules and sanctions. Elval Halcor, Vsmpo-Avisma, Rusal and Nornickel did not reply to requests for comment.

    At the start of the war, Europe was relying on Russian producers for 30 per cent of its nickel, 35 per cent of its alumina and 15 per cent of its aluminium, according to an internal memo by trade body Eurometaux seen by IE. Russia accounted for 41 per cent of the world’s palladium production, and up to 25 per cent of its vanadium output.

    “Russia occupies a large part of Eurasia – it possesses a big part of the strategic reserves of critical raw materials, on par with China,” says Oleg Savytskyi from Razom We Stand, a Ukrainian NGO. Moreover, “the low density of the population, authoritarian control and practical absence of environmental and human rights protections made investments in the mining of Russia’s resources terribly attractive,” he adds.

    The EU’s crippling dependency should have been curbed earlier, argues Transparency International’s Papp. “We’ve had enough time to react. The annexation of Crimea dates back to 2014, the invasion of Georgia even dates back to 2008 15 years ago! And what have we done? We’ve increased our dependence on Russia. It was an absolute and serious mistake.”

    A Polish diplomat said Poland has pressed the EU to “decouple completely” from Russia in several areas, “but for the sake of unity and efficiency in adopting new sanctions packages we have agreed to postpone particular measures until further discussion.”

    As EU sanctions require unanimity among all member states, divergent national economic interests can often water down packages. When the ninth set of sanctions banned fresh investments in Russia’s mining sector in December 2022, it included an exemption to invest in some mining activities for some critical raw materials. As a result, European companies can still pour cash into Russian mines to extract nickel, titanium and other key metals.

    The European Commission won’t publicly comment on whether or not it has proposed a ban on critical raw materials. One reason could be that  “sanctions are carefully designed to hit their targets while preserving EU interests,“ an EU source told IE.

    Weaning the EU off Russia’s critical and strategic materials will be difficult. Replacing suppliers and forging new international partnerships is an arduous process. Finding a raw material, such as titanium or copper, with a similar quality and price of those from Russia is also a challenge. 

    Imposing tariffs or severing ties too quickly could lead to a global price surge which would harm European buyers while benefiting Moscow. A ban could also prompt India, Iran, and China to intensify purchases, further depleting critical raw material resources for EU industries.

    Tymofiy Mylovanov, president of the Kyiv School of Economics, says a ban would be difficult to implement given global demand challenges and Europe’s reliance on Russia. “Overall, with these specific materials, the monetary value of what Russia would lose from the EU import ban, might be smaller than the effect on the EU production,” says Ukraine’s former trade and economic development minister.

    UN trading data shows that while EU imports of Russian copper, nickel and aluminium imports have declined in the past two years, nickel and aluminium revenues remained stable. Russia’s nickel sales to the EU were worth $1 billion in the first half of 2021 and were $1.1 billion two years later.

    The Union is now trying to reduce its dependency. In March, the European Commission presented its Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA), a new legislation aimed at reducing EU dependency on third countries for critical raw materials.

    “War in Europe is a risk which was not present in the last decades and Russia was known as a reliable supplier,” says German MEP Hildegard Bentele, shadow rapporteur on the CRMA at the European Parliament. “The EU should take immediate action to support European companies to decrease and replace their CRM deliveries from Russia as soon as possible.”

    The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy is expected to propose a 12th package of sanctions in the coming weeks, which will be then discussed by member states. Brussels hopes the package will renew pressure on the Russian economy and sap its fighting strength on the battlefields of Ukraine. Restrictions on critical raw materials does not seem to be on the table.

  • European Green Metals Ltd announces Eichigt licence results

    European Green Metals Ltd announces Eichigt licence results

    European Green Metals Ltd (EGM), a critical metals exploration and development company focused in Europe, has announced positive results from its initial work programme at the 14 km2 Eichigt licence in Saxony, Germany. These results highlight the potential for critical minerals and in particular rare earth elements (REE) in this historic mining district in the industrial heart of Europe, which relies heavily on imported minerals from geopolitically sensitive regions.

    Highlights

    • Initial rock sample results identified elevated levels of multiple critical elements and mineralised structures on a NW-SE trend.
    • Structure with 1 km of continuous strike identified with workings over a total of 1.7 km strike.
    • Lithium (Li) up to 233 0ppm (0.233%), cobalt (Co) up to 8280 ppm (0.82%) and nickel (Ni) up to 1890 ppm (0.189%).
    • REE values higher than expected in select samples – cerium (Ce) up to 8500 ppm (0.85%) and neodymium (Nd) up to 1725 ppm (0.17%).
    • High manganese content typically >10% in most samples – manganese is a key input to battery performance, longevity, and energy density.
    • Highest total rare earth elements (TREO) value 1.26% with four samples over 0.5% TREO.
    • Saxony has excellent geology in terms of the potential for multiple critical metal deposit types and evidence of large mineralising systems and numerous historic mines.
    • Licence is part of EGM’s strategy to build a portfolio of critical mineral assets in Europe to support the bloc’s green energy transition and net zero ambitions.

    EGM CEO, David Hall, said: “These initial results highlight the presence of multiple critical minerals and REEs within the Eichigt licence, located in the vicinity of energy-transition industrial end users in Saxony. Saxony has excellent infrastructure, a long mining history and mining culture, combined with strong links to cutting-edge academic research in the field of various critical metal deposit types.

    “We applied for the license following analysis of historic data and now, with our own rock and soil sampling programme yielding results better than anticipated, especially with regards to REEs, the intention is to rapidly advance Eichigt to drill stage. Scout drilling will test the scale of this multi-critical metal system whilst contemporaneously developing new target areas for quantification and development.

    “Our strategy is to identify and develop economic critical mineral and REE projects in Europe, to supply Europe. The reliance of European industry on critical minerals produced in regions where geopolitical issues are prevalent means that it is imperative that Europe develops its own supplies; the main theme of the recently announced European Critical Raw Materials Act. With this backdrop, the economic potential of a licence in the heart of Europe prospective for Li-Co-Mn-REE make the Eichigt prospect extremely exciting.

    “On a wider level, we continue to advance the Olserum REE and Pajala graphite projects in Sweden, securing our position as an emerging supplier of critical mineral projects in Europe for Europe.”

    In total, 35 grab rock samples were taken and are the first from the licence area to be analysed for the full REE spectrum. The analysis was carried out by ALS Minerals at Loughrea, Ireland. These results back up reports by the previous operator of highly anomalous Li, Co, Ni (+/-REE) in an area of old surface workings for iron ore.

    REE and critical metals values are highlighted by the selected samples:

    • AA-4009: Ce 8500 ppm, Nd 1725 ppm, La 965 ppm, Pr 428 ppm, Li 1280 ppm, and Co 8280 ppm.
    • AA-4019: Li 2330 ppm, Co 3230 ppm, Cu 2300 ppm, Ce 4430 ppm, La 387 ppm, and Nd 306 ppm.
    • AA-4002: Ce 5610 ppm, La 880 ppm, Nd 821 ppm, Li 1290 ppm, and Co 3090 ppm.

    Importantly, samples show low levels of U and Th with <20 ppm and <31 ppm respectively.

    Following the results from this initial sampling, EGM geologists carried out follow-up rock sampling, which has expanded the footprint of the mineralisation in all directions, as well as an orientation soil sampling grid. Samples are currently with ALS with results expected shortly. EGM geologists have also scouted the area for drill pads with the aim of carrying out a scout drilling programme in 4Q23.